Hi,

I've been watching some old sporting events from my childhood on YouTube, and just fired up the 1977 World Series against the Dodgers. I was five years old when it occurred, so I have no living memory of it other than my dad watching it on TV. I've noted the following so far:

* ABC was promoting the Space Shuttle test flight during commercial breaks. Apparently NASA was in a race with the USSR to build an orbital transport system.

* The Goodyear blimp was used to provide aerial coverage of the old Stadium. That was the only long distance coverage available and you couldn't see very much.

* There was a big Marlboro billboard in center field; I had forgotten how prevalent those were back in the day.

* Howard Cosell was a color commentator. The ABC narration by him, Keith Jackson, and Tom Seaver was very professional and they were not constantly gabbing to fill in the space. They let the game play itself out and the broadcast was no nonsense.

* Yankee Stadium had an organ back then! When were organs phased out of Major League Baseball in favor of electronic music? Was it the second half of the 1980s?

* Maybe it's my imagination, but the newly renovated Yankee Stadium (in 1977) looks much larger and more cavernous than the present version.

* The pitchers were batting even though Game 1 took place in an AL ballpark. I found the following online: "The DH rule was implemented in all games of the World Series (regardless of venue) but only in even-numbered years from 1976 to 1985 (pitchers batted in odd-numbered years)."

* There was no instant replay or ability to effectively argue bad calls back then. There was a missed tag at home plate in Game One.

* Was the haircut/shave policy fully in effect back then? Some of the Yankees (Sparky Lyle) looked a little shaggy.

* The jackets the umpires wore back then were pretty cool, especially the red ones.

* It's always surprising to see people that we currently think of as retired managers (e.g.: Lou Piniella, Dusty Baker) playing the game as young men.

* In Game One the starting pitcher, Don Gullett, threw 133 pitches before being replaced.

Here's the link…enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGxrw8cWWqg

18 comments

  1. Love the insights. This was my dad’s era teams. I read Sparky’s book and those 70s teams seemed like a lot of fun… uh or something lol

  6. Really good stuff for sure. I dont care for all the extra circular activities and extremely loud music. Many people at the game seem totally disinterested and just on the phone, taking pics and literally just hanging out drinking $20 beers and talking like they are at a bar. 

  7. The Yankees still have an organist, don’t they? Used much more sparingly than I would like, but I thought they still had one. 

    I know the College World Series still has one. Blew my mind when he played Not Like Us and then I heard it at a bunch of other ballgames.

  8. Organs are still there, and were still pretty dominant up until fairly recently. I rewatched that game at the old stadium last week, and during the opening ceremony introducing all the living Yankees legends and memorializing those who passed, it was ALL organ.

  9. Yankee Stadium still has an organist. If you get the really expensive seats behind home plate, you can literally walk by him working his magic

  10. I was at games 1, 2, and 6, right field lower deck, right behind Reggie and Dewey. Epic

  11. ” . . . **Apparently** NASA was in a race with the USSR to build an orbital transport system . . .”

    Naa, it was all a hoax.

  12. Eddie Layton was the Yankee Stadium organist you heard, and he kept at it until he retired in the early 2000s.

  13. The renovated stadium was larger. They move the center field fence in. Not sure about the other ones. If you look at an aerial view of the renovated stadium you can see the original center field fence jutting out behind the new center field fence

  14. I watched a lot of the 70s playoff and World Series games when the season was delayed during the pandemic to fill the void and the two main things that stood out to me were how much the consistent scoring graphics have vastly improved the viewing experience to help remind people what’s going on, and how stadiums had much fewer ads, they’re an eye-sore now.

  15. Keith Jackson.

    Just the other morning had breakfast at Tracy Rucker’s house and his mama brought out fifteen flapjacks. 

  17. Martin was awful with pitching staffs,even by the standards back then.I probably watched 99% of the games that season and if he went to the bullpen it was Tidrow or Lyle.Every night.Ken Holtzman was on the roster all year(including the postseason)and pitched 3 times after the All Star break.He contributed to Gullett and Catfish’s careers grinding to a halt.He probably didn’t do Guidry any favors in five stints as his manager either.What he did to the early 80’s A’s staffs was criminal.

Leave a Reply